According to a statement by the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA), the East African country exported 298,500 tonnes of coffee during the 2023/24 fiscal year that ended in July 2024.
As seen in a report by the East African, the ECTA confirmed that in June, the country exported 46,000 tons of coffee, creating a record $218 million in income.
During the fiscal year, before the last, the country made $1.3 billion from the coffee trade, exporting around 240,000 tonnes of coffee.
This denotes that the volume of coffee traded by the East African country in the financial year ending July 2024 surpassed the volume of coffee traded the year prior by 20%.
Ethiopia, known as the origin of Arabica coffee, is one of Africa’s top producers and exporters of the commodity. Coffee cultivation is regarded as the cornerstone of the country’s agriculture-based economy.
Ethiopian coffee is recognized for its distinct and complex tastes, which are due to the country’s unique growing circumstances and coffee types. Ethiopia is home to numerous diverse coffee-growing areas, each yielding beans with unique flavors.
However, as seen in the East African report, experts commonly pinpoint the absence of value-addition in Ethiopia’s coffee sector as a key barrier preventing the country from fully capitalizing on its abundant coffee resources, since the country mostly sells raw coffee beans to the worldwide market.